by Donald Finley

Created on: February 22, 2011

The ability to effectively delegate tasks is one of the key elements of good leadership.  It requires a keen sense of trustworthiness, skills in reading and judging others, and tremendous patience.  Delegation helps a leader meet a number of goals, but it can also be a destructive force if applied ineffectively.

First, it helps a leader train others.  Most people have heard the saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”  A good leader has to resist the temptation to operate under that premise.  He or she must always be aware of the training and mentorship opportunities available through delegation, and clearly understand that what could be done in a short time may take longer to accomplish when its delegation to a subordinate meets additional objectives. 

Secondly, delegation allows a leader to assess subordinates.  A leader may know of the hurdles involved in tackling a task, but desire to see how a particular person handles the challenges.  That employee may be up for a raise or promotion, and his or her performance on the delegated task may just be the make-or-break decision point.

Thirdly, it helps a leader stay out of the weeds and maintain the bigger picture.  Working a specific task can tend to draw a person into tangential issues, creating a complex weave of data points.  Such details could keep a leader from focusing on the higher-level issues and decisions necessary to run the organization.  Some tasks may be time consuming, and simply take too much time from a leader’s schedule.

It is important to understand as well that delegation can also be a leader’s downfall.  To delegate a task means to delegate it to the right person.  The task should be appropriate for the person’s position in the organization, not too menial for a higher-ranking person, and not too overarching for a lower-level employee. 

The task should also be delegated with full instructions, to include any interim progress checks, a suspense for completion, specifics on any deliverable products, any boundaries or limitations commensurate with the task, and a clear hierarchy if the task involves a team.

Providing details in the delegation doesn’t mean to micro-manage.  Delegation doesn’t involve breathing down someone’s neck, requiring endless progress checks, or re-vectoring the efforts routinely.  A leader should never delegate a task he or she cannot leave alone and allow others to carry out.  Few actions lose respect faster than a leader’s micro-management.  It demonstrates a lack of trust, which is exactly the opposite of what a good leader needs to effectively delegate.

The most important thing for any leader to understand about delegation is that he or she should never attempt to delegate power.  Leadership inherently involves power and authority.  It entails decision-making at a leadership level, which means there are decisions or tasks that only the leader can make or do.  To delegate those tasks or decisions only undermines authority by creating expectations of ‘once delegated, always delegated’, which raises questions among subordinates about where those decisions are made, and who carries the power to make them.  When the leader is effective, there is no question of where such power and authority resides.

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